30 - Sunday, June 5, 1994 - Nerth Shore News

Painting a picture of one man’s ; happy life

Eleanor

JHE VINTAGE YEARS

THIS IS about a man
who has had a happy life.
He’s still having it, in spite of
the odds against, or maybe
because of, people being basi-
cally ornery. They take one on
‘the chin, iVs not a hit, it’s a
challenge.
You may know Max
_ Banbury. A lot of people do
‘because he was born in
Vancouver and worked on
Granville Street in the movie
houses when Granville was the

centre of the city’s entertain-
ment.

It was his job to create
“come-ons” for new movies
coming to the Pantages and the
Lyric and the Odeon and the
Maple Leaf, and to paint the
flats for the travelling operas
and the stage scenery.

He didn’t go to art school.
“You just learned from each
other,” he says..

_ But there were influences,
one of which had to be his
grandfather’s gift for Spencer-
ian writing, the lovely ornate
script they use on diplomas and
for engraving tablets.

All these years later grampa
Max can still turn you out a
beautifully decorated wedding-
cake with impressive fancy let-
tering.

He did floats in. those days -

too, when they had parades at
Stanley Park. May Day in West
Vancouver was another chance
to decorate — he won first prize
for an unforgettable papier-
mache fish. .

He also had contact with
Fred Varley, one of the Group
of Seven, and Jack Shadbolt,

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both of them working at their
art and interested in a boy with
his kind of talent.

Most of his theatre work was
done at night, of course, in
pteparation, and he was familiar
with all the main players in the
Granville Street night-life at
that time. There were the couple
known as the Count and
Countess, and the chap every-
one called the mad Russiaa,
along with Mr. Francis, known
for his piano-playing.

The police, too, knew he was
good for a cup of coffee in the
wee smalls, sometimes with a
bun from Shelley’s horse-drawn
van, and they *helped him lug
his buckets of calcimine around.

When he married June, he.
was doing the whole downtown
theatre circuit and making $19 a
week,

He threw up all that glamour
to take on the professional’s job
at McCleary Golf Course and
heid that post for 12 years. He
was a one-handicapper.

And say — he’s the second
man in the world to sink two
consecutive holes-in-one. In the
same game! Wouldn't you think
that would be enough?

It was, in a way. He later suf-
fered a serious heart attack that
put the kibosh on competitive
sport. Whilst he was recuperat-
ing — he’s a big man, obvious-
ly given to activity, not a
relaxed patient — someone sug-
gested he should amuse himself
by painting pictures.

So he and June went to the
store and spent a couple of hun-
dred dollars on paper and paint
and brushes and stuff and he

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started in.

It's interesting that almost
immediately he found that
music was an essential accom-
paniment to his painting. He
likes big resonant stuff, of
course, but it depends really on
what he’s picturing. He has no
airs about what he does —
when he paints, he starts what
he’s got in mind and the paint-
ing is finished and he’s free of
it, looking around for the next
proposition.

The first things he did he
took to Clifford’s in West
Vancouver to talk about fram-
ing, and he and June were both
rocked back by the reception he
got. He was urged to have them
shown in public and the two of
them were finally persuaded
that what he was doing was not
just therapy.

One of his first actual
engagements was from the
Bank of Hong Kong, having an
invitational show on behalf of
Shaughnessy Hospital. Max
nearly collapsed when his pic-
ture drew the top bid out of the
group of 95 entries.

He had to acknowledge that
it made him feel awfully good.

But then he enjoys all of life,
I think. This is merely an added
attraction, as they used to say in
the movie houses where he
hung out.

I had the pleasure of a spe-
cial viewing session, with June
acting as easel. He’s done some
lovely things — a piece of a
totem pole, for instance, per-
fectly caught, and a.mass of
erotic magnolia blooms. There’s
one of an estuary, and you can

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literally smell the damp and the
rotting.

But obviously, judging by
sheer numbers, his passion is
for abstracts, full of color and
movement and texture and free-
dom.

And music.

He has a name for every one
of them, and all are rhythmic
and lively and a delight to the
eye.

It just goes to show you —
it’s a wonderful life. Just hang

LIONS GATE]
HOSPITAL]

A Caring Community
Calendar

Auxiliary to LGH
BookSale =
Monday, June 6, Llam-2pm
Medical Day Centre Gym:
Well read books of all kinds!
For info call 984-5734.

June 7, & 14 ‘Asthma J’
Education Program ‘runs
Tuesdays, 6-7pm. Designed for } :
all ages, limited to 4 people per |
' session. To pre-register Please.
call 984-3722.

Free Cantonese Seminars
on Breast Self Exam.
Wednesday, June 8,
2:30-4:30pm (in Cantonese
only), 8¢ 8-10pm (in. ~
Cantonese & English). Ac
Lonsdale Rec Centre. To
register call 988-5281.

June 17. Find out more | °
about Services Provided by’
the MS Society by Sandra
Tong, MS Society Services
Coordinator (Lower Mainland)
1:30 to 3:00pm, Medical Day J
Centre, Lions Gate Hospital. .
For info call The Neuro
Program at 985-5915,

* Fluency Group for {-
Stutrering begins its next |
program in June. For. more
info and to register, call
Christina Mortimore at. |
984-5747,